ATmega8A

20.3.1TWI Terminology

The following definitions are frequently encountered in this section.

Table 20-1.	TWI Terminology
Term	Description
Master	The device that initiates and terminates a transmission. The Master also generates the
	SCL clock.
Slave	The device addressed by a Master.
Transmitter	The device placing data on the bus.
Receiver	The device reading data from the bus.

20.3.2Electrical Interconnection

As depicted in Figure 20-2, both bus lines are connected to the positive supply voltage through pull-up resistors. The bus drivers of all TWI-compliant devices are open-drain or open-collector. This implements a wired-AND function which is essential to the operation of the interface. A low level on a TWI bus line is generated when one or more TWI devices output a zero. A high level is output when all TWI devices tri-state their outputs, allowing the pull-up resistors to pull the line high. Note that all AVR devices connected to the TWI bus must be powered in order to allow any bus operation.

The number of devices that can be connected to the bus is only limited by the bus capacitance limit of 400 pF and the 7-bit slave address space. A detailed specification of the electrical characteristics of the TWI is given in “Two-wire Serial Interface Characteristics” on page 248. Two different sets of specifications are presented there, one relevant for bus speeds below 100 kHz, and one valid for bus speeds up to 400 kHz.

20.4Data Transfer and Frame Format

20.4.1Transferring Bits

Each data bit transferred on the TWI bus is accompanied by a pulse on the clock line. The level of the data line must be stable when the clock line is high. The only exception to this rule is for generating start and stop conditions.

Figure 20-3. Data Validity

SDA

SCL

Data Stable Data Stable

Data Change

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20.4.2START and STOP Conditions

The Master initiates and terminates a data transmission. The transmission is initiated when the Master issues a START condition on the bus, and it is terminated when the Master issues a STOP condition. Between a START and a STOP condition, the bus is considered busy, and no other master should try to seize control of the bus. A special case occurs when a new START condition is issued between a START and STOP condition. This is referred to as a REPEATED START condition, and is used when the Master wishes to initiate a new transfer without relinquishing control of the bus. After a REPEATED START, the bus is considered busy until the next STOP. This is identical to the START behavior, and therefore START is used to describe both START and REPEATED START for the remainder of this datasheet, unless otherwise noted. As depicted below, START and STOP conditions are signalled by changing the level of the SDA line when the SCL line is high.

Figure 20-4. START, REPEATED START and STOP conditions

SDA

SCL

START

STOP START

REPEATED START

STOP

20.4.3Address Packet Format

All address packets transmitted on the TWI bus are 9 bits long, consisting of 7 address bits, one READ/WRITE control bit and an acknowledge bit. If the READ/WRITE bit is set, a read operation is to be performed, otherwise a write operation should be performed. When a Slave recognizes that it is being addressed, it should acknowledge by pulling SDA low in the ninth SCL (ACK) cycle. If the addressed Slave is busy, or for some other reason can not service the Master’s request, the SDA line should be left high in the ACK clock cycle. The Master can then transmit a STOP condition, or a REPEATED START condition to initiate a new transmission. An address packet consisting of a slave address and a READ or a WRITE bit is called SLA+R or SLA+W, respectively.

The MSB of the address byte is transmitted first. Slave addresses can freely be allocated by the designer, but the address 0000 000 is reserved for a general call.

When a general call is issued, all slaves should respond by pulling the SDA line low in the ACK cycle. A general call is used when a Master wishes to transmit the same message to several slaves in the system. When the general call address followed by a Write bit is transmitted on the bus, all slaves set up to acknowledge the general call will pull the SDA line low in the ack cycle. The following data packets will then be received by all the slaves that acknowledged the general call. Note that transmitting the general call address followed by a Read bit is meaningless, as this would cause contention if several slaves started transmitting different data.

All addresses of the format 1111 xxx should be reserved for future purposes.

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Figure 20-5. Address Packet Format

Addr MSB				Addr LSB R/W	ACK

SDA

SCL

1

2

7

8

9

START

20.4.4Data Packet Format

All data packets transmitted on the TWI bus are nine bits long, consisting of one data byte and an acknowledge bit. During a data transfer, the Master generates the clock and the START and STOP conditions, while the Receiver is responsible for acknowledging the reception. An Acknowledge (ACK) is signalled by the Receiver pulling the SDA line low during the ninth SCL cycle. If the Receiver leaves the SDA line high, a NACK is signalled. When the Receiver has received the last byte, or for some reason cannot receive any more bytes, it should inform the Transmitter by sending a NACK after the final byte. The MSB of the data byte is transmitted first.

Figure 20-6. Data Packet Format

Data MSB

Data LSB ACK

Aggregate

SDA

SDA from

Transmitter

SDA from

Receiver

SCL from

Master

1	2	7	8	9	STOP, REPEATED
SLA+R/W		Data Byte			START or Next
					Data Byte

20.4.5Combining Address and Data Packets into a Transmission

A transmission basically consists of a START condition, a SLA+R/W, one or more data packets and a STOP condition. An empty message, consisting of a START followed by a STOP condition, is illegal. Note that the Wired-ANDing of the SCL line can be used to implement handshaking between the Master and the Slave. The Slave can extend the SCL low period by pulling the SCL line low. This is useful if the clock speed set up by the Master is too fast for the Slave, or the Slave needs extra time for processing between the data transmissions. The Slave extending the SCL low period will not affect the SCL high period, which is determined by the Master. As a consequence, the Slave can reduce the TWI data transfer speed by prolonging the SCL duty cycle.

Figure 20-7 shows a typical data transmission. Note that several data bytes can be transmitted between the SLA+R/W and the STOP condition, depending on the software protocol implemented by the application software.

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Figure 20-7. Typical Data Transmission

Addr MSB				Addr LSB R/W	ACK	Data MSB				Data LSB ACK

SDA

SCL

1	2	7	8	9	1	2	7	8	9
START		SLA+R/W				Data Byte			STOP

20.5Multi-master Bus Systems, Arbitration and Synchronization

The TWI protocol allows bus systems with several masters. Special concerns have been taken in order to ensure that transmissions will proceed as normal, even if two or more masters initiate a transmission at the same time. Two problems arise in multi-master systems:

•An algorithm must be implemented allowing only one of the masters to complete the transmission. All other masters should cease transmission when they discover that they have lost the selection process. This selection process is called arbitration. When a contending master discovers that it has lost the arbitration process, it should immediately switch to Slave mode to check whether it is being addressed by the winning master. The fact that multiple masters have started transmission at the same time should not be detectable to the slaves, i.e. the data being transferred on the bus must not be corrupted.

•Different masters may use different SCL frequencies. A scheme must be devised to synchronize the serial clocks from all masters, in order to let the transmission proceed in a lockstep fashion. This will facilitate the arbitration process.

The wired-ANDing of the bus lines is used to solve both these problems. The serial clocks from all masters will be wired-ANDed, yielding a combined clock with a high period equal to the one from the Master with the shortest high period. The low period of the combined clock is equal to the low period of the Master with the longest low period. Note that all masters listen to the SCL line, effectively starting to count their SCL high and low time-out periods when the combined SCL line goes high or low, respectively.

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Figure 20-8. SCL Synchronization Between Multiple Masters

TA low				TA high

SCL from

Master A

SCL from

Master B

SCL Bus

Line

TBlow				TBhigh
Masters Start				Masters Start
Counting Low Period				Counting High Period

Arbitration is carried out by all masters continuously monitoring the SDA line after outputting data. If the value read from the SDA line does not match the value the Master had output, it has lost the arbitration. Note that a Master can only lose arbitration when it outputs a high SDA value while another Master outputs a low value. The losing Master should immediately go to Slave mode, checking if it is being addressed by the winning Master. The SDA line should be left high, but losing masters are allowed to generate a clock signal until the end of the current data or address packet. Arbitration will continue until only one Master remains, and this may take many bits. If several masters are trying to address the same Slave, arbitration will continue into the data packet.

Figure 20-9. Arbitration Between Two Masters

START

Master A Loses

SDA from

Arbitration, SDAA

SDA

Master A

SDA from

Master B

SDA Line

Synchronized

SCL Line

Note that arbitration is not allowed between:

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